March, 2020

The Derry University Group, which campaigns for an independent cross-border university for northwest Ireland, signed up to New Decade, New Approach in December. Despite our unease about the corruption of the previous Stormont administration, we were convinced by the promise of 10,000 full-time university students in our city-region by the end of the decade. It […]

I’m sure the visit of William and Kate had the approval of the Johnson regime and I can’t quite see what their game is, for that regime is no friend of Ireland, William is no more familiar with Irish or world history than, say, Rev Seamus Murphy, Stephen Collins or most commentators in THE IRISH […]

Remember Jo Moore? Perhaps not. But if I tell you that, on September 11 2001 she sent a memo suggesting to Labour Party colleagues that this would be a good day to release bad news, you’ll probably remember her. Even though there’s no question of telling lies about a particular matter,  calculating its timing so […]

F I had no intention of writing a piece for International Women’s Day. But two letters in yesterday’s Irish Times got me started. One was about Mary McAleese and her spat with the Pope for which she has sought allies in THE IRISH TIMES. The second was about Mary Robinson’s error of judgement in diagnosing […]

CAPITOL HILL. Saturday, May 7, 2020—Irish-Americans—particularly those long involved in promoting equality, justice,  and peace on the whole island of Ireland—are pleased that a new Special Envoy has been re-appointed for Northern Ireland/The North, after a long interval.Fr. Sean Mc Manus—President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus—said: “We welcome this appointment—and that a grandson of […]

One thing the Royals can’t be accused of is subtlety.  If William and Kate had got off the plane with William waving a white flag, there couldn’t have been a more glaring we-come-in-peace indicator than That Green Dress worn by Kate. Eh, Kate: we get the message. You’re in Ireland on a mission to win […]

“ The whole world” Captain Boyle declared  in Juno and the Paycock  “is in a state of chassis.” He’d be in his element if he were surveying the current world scene. Australia has been on fire big-time, the rest of the world has been under several feet of water with more on its way, we’ve […]

A Britain’s EU exit  problems continue and  Ireland remains an issue.    With the ink on the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement barely dry,  Prime Minister Johnson is protesting the  N. I. Protocol.   No surprise.  The world is no longer England’s oyster but that does not stop the PM  from threatening a no-deal exit if things don’t go his  way by June.  The instant  dispute is over goods traveling […]

Micheál a chara, It’s hard, I know, and my full heart leaks sympathy for you. As a TD you’ve suffered more than your share of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. You even were round that ministerial table with Taoiseach Brian Cowan in 2008 when the Fianna Fail roof fell in.  Your critics may whine and […]

How do political parties work? Never having been a member of one, I don’t know. But I can get some idea by looking at how some parties appear to work. There’s an assumption that the people who run political parties are the elected representatives. But elected representatives are normally busy representing the people who voted […]